Fluids are injected into the Earth for a variety of applications, such as for hydraulic fracture stimulation, waste injection, produced water re-injection, or for enhanced oil recovery processes like water flooding, steam flooding, or CO2 flooding. In other applications, fluids are removed (or “produced”) from the Earth, such as for oil and gas production, geothermal steam production, or for waste clean-up.
A recently identified need entails precisely mapping the deviation and deformation of a wellbore. However, existing survey instruments can not meet the necessary specifications for accuracy or precision. For example, while tiltmeter-based wellbore deviation measurement is known (as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,944,545 to Close, et al.), deformation measurements based on tiltmeter data alone may not be practical for certain situations. Taking high precision tiltmeter measurements requires a stationary tool, and the large number of readings needed could result in an unreasonable time requirement to map a single wellbore. Moreover, while conventional caliper tools can provide casing deformation, and through double integration can provide wellbore deviation, there are significant errors which arise during the integration process that render the result untrustworthy over any significant distance. In addition, gyroscopes can also produce wellbore deviation surveys with some accuracy, but they do not provide the necessary casing deformation.